Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox) review

"Summary: You're a chick named Orta, and you've been inprisoned your entire life. You don't know who you are, why you've been inprisoned, or why they let you keep your scarf in jail. Then, one day, the city in which your prison is is attacked by a group of ravenously ugly dragons. Luckily, puff the friendly (yet equally ugly) dragon is there to save you. The rest of the story is kind of irrelevent, yet provides a good backdrop to the action. Dragons are cool.
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Summary: You're a chick named Orta, and you've been inprisoned your entire life. You don't know who you are, why you've been inprisoned, or why they let you keep your scarf in jail. Then, one day, the city in which your prison is is attacked by a group of ravenously ugly dragons. Luckily, puff the friendly (yet equally ugly) dragon is there to save you. The rest of the story is kind of irrelevent, yet provides a good backdrop to the action. Dragons are cool.

Review: This game is a rail shooter. And an excellent one at that. You basically aim your cursor and fire at whatever comes your way. There's more to this game than that, though. Many times you must balance between your lock-on lasers and your regular zappy green gun to not only attack enemies, but to also shoot down incoming projectiles. This makes the action frenetic and reminiscient of the shooters of old.

The developers added a nice twitch with the ability to switch between three different kinds of dragons: a regular, all-around good one, a massively slow offensive one, and a tiny, fast defensive one. Using these three different forms effectively is integral to success in the game, and the ability to level each of these dragons up in an RPG like fashion adds to the depth and enjoyability of the game.

The only downfall of this game is its short length. A good player can beat this game in under two hours, I estimate. Luckily, the developers added a bunch of extras and unlockables, including an encyclopedia, side stories, the original Panzer Dragoon, a level-select mode, the ability to change costumes, etc. These extras add some replay value, but eventually even the most die-hard player will begin to become bored with playing the same levels over and over again just to unlock a new special menu.

And, if you'll just look to the right of your window, you'll see a bunch of screenshots of the game. I don't need to talk anymore about graphics. Those shots speak for themselves. They each say, ''Stop dribbling all over yourself, and buy the game so you can see this game in action!''

Nuts and Bolts Bottom Line: This game is excellently fun and enjoyable. If you enjoy the shooters of old, you'll love this game. If you don't enjoy the shooters of old, you'll love this game anyway. A relatively short length, however, stops it from becoming perfect.

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